That Carpet Lost Its Pile

This morning, I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that the Head of HR has left ParserPile. One of my friends obligingly keeps me updated on these happenings, because gossip.

Anyway, the upshot was that all the horrendous reviews on Glassdoor finally penetrated her thick skin. Apparently she resigned, and was then demoted. Apparently, she fought tooth and nail for me, but was overruled. Well, I call bullshit.

She also had the ineffable cheek to tell my friends that I had been asked to consult with the team after I left, but I turned them down. Outright lie. I was never contacted by anyone from there in a professional capacity, after I left.

I was regaling my mother with this latest bombshell, when I started feeling rather melancholy. The office had its problems, but when I joined, it had the greatest team ever. The work was absorbing, the camaraderie was superlative, and the passion was universal. As time went past, those feelings drained away. A great deal of the blame could be laid at the door of our incompetent and frankly parasitic Head of HR, but a lot of the onus truly rests on the shoulders of the founders. Somewhere in the quest of running a business, they lost their humanity.

In the beginning, the founders were hands-on. We fought with them directly, because we felt free to express out opinions. Slowly, as the realisation set in that our opinions were not welcome, nor heeded, nor appreciated, and did us detriment, we stopped. Caring, that is.

The culture needed fixing then, but now it is smashed to smithereens. There is no going back from this point, as one after another, people bail from the sinking ship. Many of the old staff have remained great friends, even after leaving.

I briefly wondered how we could get things back together again, before discarding the very notion as impossible. It is so like a broken relationship; too much water has passed under the bridge.